I wrote some poems under a time limit again. To see if I could. I did.

I Wrote 10 Poems in 20 Minutes
Day 56

Poem 1:
Once I’m married
She’ll worry about if he’s good enough
And when we’ll have children,
If they’re being raised right,
Then how happy we are.
If I move out, and away,
On my own with my own money,
I won’t ever be able to stop them,
Fussing.

Poem 2:
If I drove a truck,
I would think
I get this far, then I can go home.
Then I get to see her.
If I finish doing this,
I get to sleep.
And in a couple days it will be the weekend.

Poem 3:
He sent me new jobs over email.
If I told him off
The worst he could do
Would be stop talking
Because he doesn’t help
In any other way
And I only talk to him
From kindness.

Poem 4:
I find it
And I remember thinking
What I thought when I left it there
It should have been so easy to find.
I put it right there
Somewhere different
So I remembered.

Poem 5:
He told me he’d take more melatonin
It’s the natural stuff
So he can sleep
When he can’t get booze.
Natural.

Poem 6:
I think I’ve seen so much
Then someone tells me a story
And my house becomes a stable
Full of sheltered me
Who’s never seen this sun.

Poem 7:
His name was Patrick
And he wore SpongeBob t-shirts
He helped me count all the countries in Africa
But he got in the way of my work.

Poem 8:
With blonde hair and a wide nose
She told me I laughed so much, must be why I’m skinny
It works out muscles to laugh. She’d read.
Should I be worried about how skinny I am?
I hadn’t noticed if she wasn’t shaped like me.

Poem 9:
He won’t see it from another way.
Told, look at it from her perspective.
Sigh that hides the anger.
Anger to show that why couldn’t they just
See it his way.

Poem 10:
I swam at the Y with a class
To get a certificate.
He watched, because Mom wasn’t there.
The girl I swam with got bumped up
And I didn’t.
He yelled at the black suited instructor
She’s just as good as the other girl
Followed her stroke for stroke.
No it’s ok, stop, please, she was better than me
Don’t get angry at her
Anger is private and you’re at the pool.
I would have gone on to swim more if hadn’t shamed me
For being less than the best.

I’m sleepy today. I would like to petition to the dwarves for a permanent place. We’ll make eight.

I Wrote 10 Poems in 20 Minutes
Day 55

Poem 1:
He wanted an extra garlic roll,
If his son got one,
He deserved it.
No one else should have more than him.
After all the work he did today.
He paid for this house you know.
They would leave soon.
Then it would be quieter.

Poem 2:
Someone to talk to
I’d like that I think
But if I go imagining
Just exactly what I want out of my sounding board
I’ll reject anyone I might find

Poem 3:
Because he cares
His heart’s in the right place.
He gives me new open job applications
Available around town.
Like he’s scouring the globe looking for
Daughter redemption with a position.
This is how I help. He thinks.
I am helping. If she won’t look,
I’ll look for her.
See how great I am.
I will solve all your problems if you just listen to me.

Poem 4:
I had an opportunity to talk
Just today
Conversing about what I knew
But I said nothing
Trite and turned
You don’t like to talk after all this.

Poem 5:
I read the same part of the book again
Waiting to feel the way it will
Like the song I use to cheer me up
I know how I’ll react
Think the same thoughts
See the same words
And only I’ll change.

Poem 7:
My hours collect to months
My days to weeks
Then the year
The whole year
I’ve been thinking this way
This same way.

Poem 8:
I knocked over the lamp I have at edge of the stand
Glass broke on the carpet
But I keep stepping over it
I haven’t cleaned it up
Because I told myself I should clean it up
Now I don’t take orders
The rational ‘I should do this’
Doesn’t listen to I can do it later

Poem 9:
I opened the window
The dead bugs in the sill got some air
My view, a graveyard
The some who never got in

Poem 10:
I didn’t know the answer I thought was right
Was the right one to give, frozen
Staring, she knew I should know this
But I blubbered my lips up and down
With the straight confidence of controlling silence
And she called on someone else.